Yes... I am the breadwinner...!

It happened on one of the Saturdays... around 2-3 years back... ! He was some survey guy... the kind who goes from door to door and collects answers for survey questions and also the contact informations...! I have this hunch that these are the places from where your contact information is leaked and then you get a zillion promotional messages/calls everyday... for everything from 'easy money' to 'perfect life partner'...! And I absolutely hate any and every such messages/calls... !

Though the fear of yet another promotional call is quite a reason for turning down any such survey requests whatsoever... there is another reason too... a personality trait... my impatience...!  I tend to lose patience...very quickly !

Long story short... I am not fond of any random surveys... and definitely not on a Saturday morning...! But here he was... standing on my door and asking me all sorts of questions... ! Under any normal circumstances ... I would have turned him down... and that too not so politely...  but for once... I was trying to be polite... and understand his point of view... and also appreciate his effort... :)

He started with the questions... first my name and mobile number which I provided hesitantly... then my education and so on...!  I was happy to help... and he was happy to increase his head count by one... ! 

The survey was going on fine... at least it appeared so... until he asked me..."Who is the breadwinner of the family?" and I promptly replied... "me"... He looked up from the questionnaire sheet to my face... and then he looked beyond me to the dinning table... where my husband and my brother were having brunch and reading the newspaper... and he repeated the question... little loudly..."Who is the breadwinner of the family... Maam?" and looked at me expectantly for the *RIGHT* answer...! 

In that one moment... I felt betrayed... cheated and insulted... ! Here I am... trying to help him... and here he is... looking through me... as if I do not exist... ! Whatever happened to my engineering degree... to my professional qualifications... and to my enviable salary package? Does nothing matter... just because I am a woman? 

Is he the only one who has asked me this question... is he the first one who has asked this question? No... definitely not... ! By now... I should have gotten used to this question... just that I am not YET ready to give in... I am not YET ready to surrender... ! I have worked very hard to create a place for myself... I have slogged for hours and days and months to have a standing of my own... I have fought my way up against all hurdles...! And I am not letting go any of it... not yet... not ever...!

And so I looked straight into his eyes... and replied "Yes... I am THE breadwinner... Indeed"! 

The Road Not Taken...

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.